Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced that it will launch an AWS infrastructure Region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2026. The new AWS Region will give developers, startups, entrepreneurs, enterprises as well as healthcare, education, gaming, and nonprofit organizations, greater choice for running their applications and serving end users from data centers located in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with options for customers to keep their content in-country. As part of its long-term commitment, AWS is planning to invest more than USD 5.3 billion (approx. SAR 19.88 billion) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
“Today’s announcement supports the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation with the highest levels of security and resilience available on AWS cloud infrastructure, helping serve fast-growing demand for cloud services across the Middle East," said Prasad Kalyanaraman, Vice President of Infrastructure Services at AWS.
“The partnership with AWS and their announcement of an AWS Region, backed by a USD 5.3 billion investment, ignites a new era of technological excellence and innovation for the Kingdom,” said His Excellency Engineer, Abdullah bin Amer Al-Swaha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Minister of Communications and Information Technology.
The new AWS Region will consist of three availability zones at launch, adding to the existing 105 availability zones across 33 geographic regions globally. With this announcement, AWS has plans to launch 18 more availability zones and six more AWS Regions in Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.
AWS offers the broadest and deepest portfolio of services, including analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), compute, database, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning (ML), mobile services, storage, and other cloud technologies.
Supporting Cloud Adoption in Saudi Arabia
To support the growth in cloud adoption across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, AWS will continue to scale its training programs and help accelerate the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goal of empowering women to increase participation in the workforce. To help support this goal, AWS is launching a new upskilling program— AWS Saudi Arabia Women’s Skills Initiative— in partnership with Skillsoft Global Knowledge. AWS will train up to 4,000 women on AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials, at no charge, through classroom trainings with AWS-certified professionals. This initiative is designed to help women jumpstart a career in cloud computing.
In addition, AWS will establish two new innovation centers and provide startups in the Middle East and North Africa with technical mentorship and trainings on AWS technologies such as AI and ML. AWS will also make grants available to fund graduate student research and provide free AWS Skill Builder subscriptions for up to 4,000 individuals working for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) established in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
AWS Region in KSA: A Welcome Move
Organizations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are among the millions of active customers using AWS in more than 190 countries around the world. Enterprises in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia choose AWS to innovate, drive cost efficiencies, and accelerate launch time. Organizations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that choose AWS to run their workloads to accelerate innovation, increase agility, and drive cost savings include Abdul Latif Jameel, Almarai, Almosafer, Al Naghi Group, Jahez, Mobily, Red Sea Global, Saudi Telecom Group, Seera Holding Group, and many others.
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AWS Partners Encourage AWS Region
The AWS Partner Network (APN) is a global community that leverages AWS’ technologies, programs, expertise, and tools to build solutions and services for customers. Together, partners and AWS provide innovative solutions, solve technical challenges, win deals, and deliver greater customer value. AWS Partners in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia include Adobe, AppSquadz, Cognizant, DXC Technology, Genesys, Kyndryl, LTIMindtree, SAP, Trend Micro Incorporated, Zain, among others.
Also Read: AWS Supports RTA’s Cloud Transition
Continuous Focus on Sustainability
Amazon is committed to becoming a more sustainable business and reaching net-zero carbon across its operations by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement, as part of The Climate Pledge. Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge and became its first signatory in 2019. As part of its Climate Pledge commitment, Amazon is on track to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of the original 2030 target. Amazon has been named the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy for the last four years in a row— a position it’s held since 2020. Amazon now has more than 500 renewable energy projects in 27 countries. Additionally, AWS will be water positive by 2030, returning more water to communities than it uses in its direct operations.